Human tissue compositions, which may be derived from deceased donors, have been used for many years in various surgical procedures, including treatments for certain medical conditions, including tissue defects and wounds and in reconstructive surgical procedures.
Medical grafting procedures often involve the implantation of autografts, allografts, or synthetic grafts into a patient to treat a particular condition or disease. An autograft is tissue obtained from another location in the recipient's body, while an allograft is tissue obtained from an individual (donor) other than the recipient. Allograft tissue is often taken from deceased donors that have donated their tissue for medical uses to treat living people. Such tissues represent a gift from the donor or the donor family to enhance the quality of life for other people.
The use of musculoskeletal allograft tissue in reconstructive orthopedic procedures and other medical procedures has markedly increased in recent years, and millions of musculoskeletal allografts have been safely transplanted. A common allograft is bone. One example of this is bone allografts used to treat patients whose bones have degenerated from cancer. Typically, bone grafts are reabsorbed and replaced with the patient's natural bone upon healing. Bone grafts can be used in a variety of indications, including neurosurgical and orthopedic spine procedures for example. In some instances, bone grafts can be used to fuse joints or to repair broken bones. In some cases, bone material is combined with mesenchymal stem cells to produce a graft composite.
Tissue grafts may also have reconstructive applications. For example, currently reconstructive techniques to fill a lumpectomy often use either the patient's own fat from a secondary surgical site (autograft) or foreign implantable material (synthetic graft). However, both types of procedures have limitations. In an allograft procedure, healing of the secondary surgical site may result in a depression or divot, while synthetic grafts may be rejected or encapsulated.
Tissue grafts are often implemented in various industries related to orthopedics, reconstructive surgery, podiatry, and cartilage replacement. In some cases, currently known tissue grafts offer limited manipulability in adjusting tissue uniformity, flexibility, and/or porosity.
Hence, although presently used reconstructive surgical techniques and tissue graft compositions and methods provide real benefits to patients in need thereof, still further improvements are desirable. The present disclosure provides solutions to at least some of these outstanding needs.